JF: The car was built over the course of six
years, it took 22,000 man hours to build it. Just a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
COMM: This fully customised Buick Riveria
has been a labour of love for Canadian JF Launier. He's been renovating vehicles since
the age of thirteen. But in 2014, this Buick finally earned him the coveted Ridler award,
for America's most creative and innovative custom car at the Detroit Autorama.
COMM: The project began with a 1964 Riviera.
Bought from a junkyard for just $400.
JF: People always ask me why a '64 Riviera?
Well, the long and the short of it is when I was 21 years old I had a '64 Riviera. I
sold it to start my first business and I thought to myself, I'm gonna have another one of those
cars one day. I didn't really know I was going to take it this far.
COMM: What followed were countless modifications
to the original Buick body.
COMM: The 1971 Riviera roof with it's unique
shape and sloped rear window was fitted to the 1964 chassis. The car was shortened by
removing sheet metal from behind the doors and rear wheel openings. The front wheel openings
were moved forward to make space for a 6.2 litre Chevrolet V8 engine, which provides
784 horsepower.
COMM: JF estimates that he spent $300,000
dollars on the project in total.
JF: The car was built over a course of six
years, it took 22,000 man hours to build it. It was everything I could afford, my parents
house got remortgaged, my house got remortgaged. The maths is pretty simple, it's 22,000 hours,
75 bucks an hour shop rate. You're looking at a million and a half just in hours.
COMM: JF named the finished car 'Revision' and in
2014 he proved that one man's trash is another man's treasure, by winning the Ridler
award. But despite his success, JF warns that budding car customisers shouldn't take such
projects lightly.
JF: It was ups and downs, it was always a
battle to try and get enough money to buy parts. To find enough time in the week to
balance family, business and a project of this magnitude. I always felt like giving up, there
wasn't a day where I didn't feel like it was too much, we had taken on too much and we had just gone
too far with it. Be very prepared. Don't just build your first car and think it's gonna
win. This is our fourth attempt at it. You gotta be prepared, you gotta be prepared to
give up everything for a long, long time.
COMM: There's no doubt though that he's proud
of turning a rust bucket into his most prized possession.
JF: There are people that love it, there are
people that hate it. Kinda nobody in the middle. This car is what I wanted in a race car, this
car is what I wanted in a show car and it's beyond that in all aspects. I have drag raced
the car, I have road raced the car, I have won the biggest award in the world. Those
three have never been put together. And I drive my kids to school in it and take the
kids for ice cream.